Fixing 100 years of Florida’s development barriers could improve water quality

Maybe we can't turn the clock back on how human development has harmed water quality, but some are trying to correct past mistakes.

A new project is gearing up that environmentalists believe will mark a step backwards in time for water quality in Southwest Florida.

Paid for by a federal lawsuit against BP for its Deep Horizon oil spill, the plan is about moving water over hundreds of square miles into Charlotte Harbor. The first step is to find out what's going on now, and how far off we are from the way things were before development took over.

The newest study area begins out in Cecil Webb Wildlife Management Area east of I-75. West on the Gulf of Mexico side of I-75, is Yucca Pens Wildlife Management Area. Scientists have already collected water flow data in Yucca Pens. Adding data from Cecil Webb will complete the picture and allow corrections to start.

The practical goal is to get water out of the Webb wildlife area where it apparently backs up, and get it to Yucca Pens, which is drying up. In the long run, project designers believe improving the vast plain of water flow could fix a problem in Charlotte Harbor that has killed off critical plants and animals like sea grass and oysters. The problem is too much salt during certain times of the year and too little in other times.

Who is behind this study?

The champion for the study is the nonprofit Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Program based in Punta Gorda. CHNEP got the project going after it was dormant for more than 10 years, said Executive Director Jennifer Hecker. State environmental regulators either don't have the money or the mission to do this kind of project, Hecker said, so they will be monitoring the project instead and channeling funds from the federal government.